How Trump has undermined public confidence in the electoral system ahead of the 2024 race

Former President Donald Trump, who in recent days has been attacking Vice President Kamala Harris for not participating as much on the campaign trail as he has, stepped up his rhetoric this week by repeatedly raising a baseless conspiracy theory that his opponent took a day off from criticism. final stretch until Choice Day because he may already know “something” about the results, sowing distrust in the elections.

“Do you know where Kamala is today? They don’t want to tell you. No, no, no. You don’t know where she is. She’s sleeping. She took a day off,” Trump began shortly after taking the stage at his campaign rally. rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday night, continuing her line of attacks based on the fact that she did not hold any public campaign events 14 days before Election Day, even though her campaign says he was taking the day to prepare for and participate in two important network interviews.

“We have 14 days (until) the most important election in the history of our country… How do you take a day off? Fourteen days,” Trump continued.

He then baselessly suggested that “maybe she knows something that we don’t know. Do you think she knows some kind of outcome that we don’t know? Maybe she knows something,” he hinted without being specific before quickly backtracking, “I doubt it.” “She’s bad news.”

He doubled down on this baseless rhetoric Wednesday night in front of a massive crowd of more than 10,000 people at a rally in Duluth, Georgia, repeating the phrase: “Maybe she knows something we don’t know. That’s bad, right?” .

He then further installed the idea and asked, “Does everyone understand that?” The crowd applauded and responded, “Yes.”

It was the latest in a long line of comments by Trump that have undermined public confidence in the American electoral system in recent years, along with his baseless accusations that his political opponents “cheat,” his constant attacks on mail-in voting and his continued pressure for the need for his followers to “protect the vote.”

His rhetoric about election integrity has deeply affected many of his supporters’ perception of the American electoral system, and many voters at Trump rallies over the past two years told ABC News that they do not trust the electoral system.

Trump’s repeated comments that he will accept the results of the 2024 election “only if they are fair and legal” have fueled such distrust among his supporters, an unfounded suggestion that the current election may not be “fair.”

Just over the weekend, Trump, answering questions from the press through a McDonald’s drive-thru window in Pennsylvania During a campaign photo shoot, he said: “Yes, of course, if it’s a fair election. Always. I’ll always accept it if it’s a fair election,” when asked if he would accept the result of the 2024 election.

And during a podcast with right-wing commentator Patrick Bet-David published last week, Trump baselessly claimed: “If the election isn’t rigged, we’re going to win. If it’s rigged, I guess it’s a different story, but we.” We’ll find out very soon.”

On Monday, Trump, at a press conference during his visit a part of North Carolina damaged by the hurricaneHe acknowledged that he had not seen any evidence to suggest that the 2024 presidential election would not be fair.

Later that day, at a campaign rally in Greensboro, Trump said his hand-picked Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley will “stop the cheating” of his political opponents.

Still, throughout the election cycle, Trump has been raising unfounded questions about the current electoral system and continued to falsely claim that the 2020 election was “rigged,” fueling distrust and fear among voters.

“The election is so fucked up. We have to go back and we have to change everything,” Trump falsely said during a campaign rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in August. “We want to go to paper ballots. We want to go to same-day voting. We want to go to citizenship documents. And we want to go to voter ID. It’s very simple. We want to get rid of voting by mail. “

Trump has drove conflicting messages about voting by mailoften baselessly calling it “corrupt” and “rigged,” even as his campaign and the RNC attempt to restore confidence in the electoral system and urge voters to adopt all types of voting methods to maximize voter turnout in the election general.

“We’re spending a very significant amount of our time protecting the vote,” Whatley said in June when asked about Trump’s disparaging comments about mail-in voting. “We are recruiting hundreds of thousands of volunteers who we will recruit, train and ensure we deploy to serve as observers, poll workers and chief judges across the country.”

Still, the former president’s disparaging rhetoric continued the following month when Trump falsely claimed at a town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: “Mail-in voting isn’t working. It’s corrupt. But until then, Republicans must win.”

Trump has increasingly softened his tone on mail-in voting in recent weeks as states begin mail-in voting. Yet at the same time, Trump has baselessly questioned the voting method and has shown reluctance to cast votes via mail-in voting.

“I don’t feel safe voting by mail,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo earlier this month, stating that other countries have had problems with voting by mail. Trump made it clear that he doesn’t want to discourage people from voting, adding, “look, we have to win the election now.”

Last month, Trump even threatened to prosecute “to the fullest extent possible” those who “cheat” in the 2024 election, falsely claiming in a social media post that Democrats engaged in “rampant cheating and deception” during the elections. 2020 presidential election.

“Therefore, the 2024 elections, in which votes have only just begun to be cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and WHEN I WON, those people who CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, which will include long prison sentences. so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” Trump wrote in part on his social media platform.

“Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought, captured and prosecuted at levels that have, unfortunately, never been seen before in our country,” he continued.

The Trump campaign said Trump is clear that he wants “free and fair elections.”

“President Trump has always been clear: we must have free and fair elections or else we will not have a country,” campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News. “That’s why the RNC and the Trump campaign have launched the largest election integrity program in history.”

Harris has been reviving messaging about Trump’s alleged threat to American democracy as part of an argument (frequently heard in his speeches) that Trump is unfit for office. Part of that argument is that Trump refuses to accept that he lost the 2020 election and that the same thing could happen again.

Earlier this month, Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, He said he doesn’t believe Trump lost the 2020 election.. Harris’ campaign responded by saying that “Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate for one reason and one reason only: He will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t do and put Donald Trump above our Constitution.”

“(advance) The refusal to acknowledge the simple fact that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election is proof that if Trump wins, there will be no one left to control his worst instincts and prevent him from gaining unprecedented and unchecked power to do whatever he wants and put our country in danger. risk,” Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.

On the presidential debate stageTrump had the opportunity to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election, but he didn’t take advantage of it.

ABC News moderator David Muir read aloud recent quotes from the former president in which he appeared to admit to being defeated by President Joe Biden, including last week when he said he “lost by a hair.”

“Did I say that?” Trump responded. He went on to say that such comments were sarcastic and that he was, in fact, not accepting his loss.

Trump has repeated false claims that he “lost by a hair” at recent campaign events.

At campaign rallies, Trump’s message to his supporters heading into the final stretch of the election has been to make them “too big to manipulate.”

“We have to have a landslide election that’s too big to rig. Early voting is underway. So get everyone you know, get your friends together, get your family together, get Alice to get her husband, who just “He doesn’t get off the couch,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday.

Trump supporters across the country are already deeply skeptical of the American electoral system, repeating several false and debunked claims that the former president and his allies have pushed over the years.

Garrett Spratley of Reno, Nevada, who attended Trump’s rally there earlier this month, said he believes the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and is still concerned about voting machines, even though election officials and experts across the country repeatedly denounce such concerns.

Still, he believes Trump will win Nevada “in a landslide” this year because more people will vote for him.

“So I think because there are a lot more people who are going to vote for him in this election than the last one, and I think he won the last one in Nevada and across the country, I think he will win Nevada for sure it will be overwhelming, if there is no fraud,” Spratley said.

Dave Glaz of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, who attended a Trump rally in Racine, Wisconsin, this summer, expressed skepticism about mail-in voting and said he wants to see a stricter voter ID law. He said he hopes the Republican Party will pay more attention to preventing any fraud.

When asked if he would accept the election results either way, he said, “I would be very… I mean, I would have to accept it. I don’t have a choice, but I’m very skeptical.”

Dave Nace of Apollo, Pennsylvania, who attended Trump’s second rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this year, said he is skeptical of the election system because he doesn’t trust the government.

“I think voting should only be done on Election Day, with paper ballots. That’s the only way to make it completely safe,” Nace said.

When asked if he would accept the election results after November, he said: “We have to accept it because we are in America, but let’s hope this country does the right thing.”